It's almost time to say goodbye to another year!

Only a few more days and we are into another year, and another decade! How was your Christmas? I hope you all had a lovely break.

So, this year...back in February 2019, I made a decision that has turned out to be such a fun one, I decided to join Stampin' Up! as a Demonstrator.
When I joined up, I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't realise how hard it would be for one thing! However I also didn't realise how much fun I would have, how much I would learn and how much friendships would grow! I feel truly blessed by it all.

For Christmas, I bought myself a pressie... a new chair for my craft space! It's so comfy, the only problem is that my cat Charlie thinks so too...

This weekend my Mum came to stay for a little Christmassy weekend. The time has flown by as always, but it has been so lovely to just relax with her. We both have a love of crafting and so our time is always packed full of as much crafting as we can manage! Here's a few cards that Mum made (They're much more special than mine!)

Using the Special Someone stamp set  with the tree from Snow Front it creates a beautiful card, perfect for any season, and so cute too!

How adorable is this?! Still using the Special Someone stamp set, add a few layers and the cutest Raccoon, loving it!

STILL using the Special Someone stamps, this is the heart shaped balloon. The red balloons are covered in Wink of Stella, however due to the lighting it's a bit hard to see! I love the simplicity of this card, but the choice of colours make it striking! 

I absolutely love crafting with Mum, and I love the cards she comes up with, I'll definitely be pinching a couple of ideas! 

Well that's it for now, and for 2019! 

I wish you all a wonderful New Year 

Dawn x 

3 Sleeps 'til Santa!!

Isn't it exciting! I do turn into a big kid at Christmas time, the films, the music, the silly games... I love it all! 

I have had a little bit of a crafty break for the past couple of weeks, but now I am back on it and have spent the weekend crafting with some of the beautiful new products from the Spring/Summer Catalogue, as well as some from the current catalogues!

I am so looking forward to starting the workshops for next year, can you believe it's going to be 2020?! We are entering a new decade! 

For my first workshop, we will be making desktop calendars in the Creative Calendar Class. 

I had so much fun putting this project together, it's my own little personalised calendar, made just the way I wanted to! 

Here's a couple of sneak peek photos of my calendar, let me know what you think!

If you would like to come along to the workshop to make your own calendar, or maybe you would like to host your own crafty party with your friends to make this or something else...let me know! Now taking booking for the New Year! 

Anyhow, just a little post today, I have lots to get prepped for upcoming classes, and still have work in the morning! 

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and hope you have been good for Santa! 

Dawn x 

Winter is coming!

I can't believe it's December! 

November flew past didn't it?! 

I had such a good month, 2 workshops,  1 stall, a girly evening,  I even managed to put my garden to bed for the winter AND finish all my Christmas shopping!! I know, I've amazed myself too!! 

This weekend I held a stall at a local fete. My first ever stall! 

I worked really hard creating cards and small gifts. 

Using the tag punches I made a basket of various tags. The dog and cat treats were made using the wooden crate die, and they were very popular! 

Mini pizza boxes make a perfect gift box, I sold them as cookie boxes as Santa needs his cookie!! Aren't they pretty! 

The Mini Curvy Keepsake die is a godsend for making little table treats. So simple to make and so fun to decorate! 

I also used the mini acetate boxes and added a little dsp to make them so pretty. 

My cards! Well you have seen so many of these now, but I do love my little stand to show some of them off! 

Oh, my tree, it really helped show off the tree decorations, how great do they look! 

The stall was definitely a learning curve. The main thing I learned is to cater for you market... I had my stall at a day nursery and so the children were really young... more shiny things were needed, and they all seemed to love tombolas and lucky dips! So that's something to keep in mind for next time. 

Overall I am happy with how it went, and I hopefully have another couple of ladies to come to my workshops!! 

I hope you all had a great week, and are as excited about Christmas coming as I am!! (Only 24 more sleeps to go!) 

Bye for now

Dawn x

So much prettiness!

Hello everyone!

Can you believe it's only a week until December?! Then I can get my Christmas tree up and really start feeling festive!

This weekend was so much fun, I held a workshop where 8 lovely ladies made 5 Christmas cards each, it was great!
I had prepared 5 kits, using different stamp sets, with all the die cutting done (to save time), ink pads and blends were flying around the table so much colour and chaos,...but it was so much fun. Take a look at some of the cards; these cards were made by Rachel!

Holly Jolly Christmas stamps and dies, with a Poppy Parade layer and some lovely colouring using the Blends, and a splash of gold :)

#Elfie stamps, I love the pink and green colours. And the freckles are so cute!!

How amazing is Snow Front?! A sponge brayer was used to create the dark sky, with Night of Navy, and then Shaded Spruce and Early Espresso for the trees. Stunning!

The leaves in Rooted in Nature make a great flower! Cherry Cobbler and Shaded Spruce inks and of course a little bit of bling! 

Finally,  Winter Woods. You can't make Christmas cards without squeezing it in!! The tree is so beautiful,  it really doesn't need anything adding!! 

Seaside spray for a little snow, the stamp came from Nature's Beauty.  

So there you have it! 5 beautiful cards! I was so pleased all the ladies managed to make them, and a few learned new techniques too! 

 Next weekend is my stall, I can't wait, it's so close!! 

Thank you for reading. Until next week...

Dawn x 

This little crafter is off to market!

Hello everyone!

I hope this week has been a happy one!

Halloween has passed, fireworks are going off nightly, it's certainly getting colder...and Christmas is now just around the corner!

I have so many things I want to make for Christmas gifts and cards, I thought I was on top of it all, but now...where has the time gone?!

I also booked a stall at a local fete, so I have been in stock making overload!! It is very exciting though, my first ever stall!

I've made lots of cards, some cute keepsake boxes, reindeer feed, dog and cat treat boxes... I still have so much more I'd like to make!

I love these mini curvy keepsake boxes. Made using the die cutter and a few embellishments... so cute! They make gorgeous table gifts/favours and a Ferrero Rocher fits in perfectly! I may turn some into tree decorations too :)

I made the dog and cat treat boxes using the wooden crate die, the dog or cat punch, a small gusseted bag and some ribbon. 

I grabbed these cute little bags from the Clearance Rack a while back, stamping on them worked so well! Add some reindeer feed (bird seed) and a little tag made using the tag punch and voila!

There are many more bits and bobs that I have been putting together and I hope my stall will look inviting to everyone who goes to the fete! I will be sure to take lots of photos from the day... I have 2 weeks to finish my preparations!

Before then I have another workshop to prepare for! The next one is making 5 Christmas cards!! I'm looking forward to that! 

So for now...have a great week and thanks for reading. 

Dawn x 

Stamping chaos at its finest!

This weekend I hosted a Wrapping,  Card and Tag workshop.  The idea was to make a matching set using either Dino Roar,  Snow Front or Floral Essence. 

6 lovely ladies came along to the workshop and I adored the friendly and happy atmosphere and everyone seemed to really enjoy crafting and making some gorgeous things! Thank you ladies for making it a great afternoon!

Here are some of the bits they created! 

I love the Snow Front stamp set, you can create a beautiful scene in minutes! Night of Navy works so well for this set. And a little bird in the tree using Poppy Parade or Cherry Cobbler and it sets it off perfectly! 

The Floral Essence set is so pretty, we used Rococo Rose for the flowers, and Mossy Meadow for the leaves, add some vellum and a bit of bling and voila! 

I had typically forgotten to take something with me, and this week it was the Sentiments to put on the tags and Snow Front card! Hannah to the rescue (thanks Hannah!) With the So Many Stars stamp set so words could be added after all! 



This wrapping paper looks absolutely stunning, using Snow Front again! 

I will definitely be running more workshops like this, if you would like to join in the fun then please do let me know! 

Have a great week,  until next time x 

What a week!

You know when you have a week off work, and you have all these ideas of what you can do with so much time? Then you blink and the week has gone and you're suddenly prepping for work tomorrow... yeah, that's me now!

I have had such a productive week off though! I decorated the lounge and hall/stairs. Had a big sort out and sold a few bits and bobs. I only managed to craft a few times throughout the week but think I got a lot done!

I had a lovely 1 to 1 with one of the ladies and we got through some Stamparatus techniques,  followed by making a few pretty cards.

I had another 1 to 1 the day after showing techniques for trees and my friend left very happy with her 3 cards!

Myself,  I have been working on Christmas... Its all about Christmas now!

I took a little video showing all the pretties I played with. It was mainly the Natures Beauty set, and a few #Elfies for good measure... what do you think? (I may need to work on my camera skills a bit more!)

I also had a play with making some little gift boxes. The ones I made were to hold 8 tea lights, however they are easily adaptable for chocolate bars or other treats.
I do love the ribbon on the one below, it's called Cherry Cobbler diagonal stripe ribbon (which you will find a link to on the right!) And of course I had to use the cheeky #Elfie again!

(The tea lights are patchouli scented and smell amazing by the way!) 

Now I need to do some more prep for next week's workshop,  we're making matching wrapping paper, card and tag! I can't wait! 

Have a great week everyone 

Dawn x 

Christmas is coming!

With less than 80 days until Christmas day, my crafty space is looking more like Santa's grotto every day! 

This weekend I held my first Christmas card workshop and I also upgraded to holding it at the local village hall! Exciting times! 

It was only a small group but the girls really helped me in finding my feet,  and we all had a great time making some lovely cards. 

We had a play with heat embossing,  using Gold for the Let it Snow stamp, and Shimmer White for Believe. 

Using the die cut of Santa in his sleigh over Night of Navy splattered with Frost White and a Champagne Mist painted moon... I think it looks so pretty! 

(When making this before the workshop,  i may have also played with other silhouettes... trees, cats, dogs... so much fun to be had!) 

For the Let it Snow card, I used the Wrapped in Plaid DSP and added the cute snowman! Such a simple card where the gold embossing finishes it off perfectly! 

Then came the bow and tag. Again using the Wrapped in Plaid DSP we made a few bows  (practice makes perfect!). Added a simple tag and voila! 

More Christmas cards will be following,  more workshops and more fun! 

I would love to see you at a workshop soon! 

Dawn x 

Why I do what I do?

Recently I joined a series of challenges set by Stampin’ Up! UK, designed for relative newbies to the SU world, and to help us try to grow our hobby/business!

In week one, we were tasked with creating a ‘meet me’ pack which is a small pack we could keep with us and pass on to potential customers.

Week two involved identifying places we could give out our packs and to give some out!

Now we are onto week three. This week we were asked ‘Why do we do what we do?’. So after a fair bit of thought, I realised I can’t fit my answer into a short Facebook post, and so it’s my blog for this week!

I’ve always been a crafty person, I loved making things as a kid, we'll skip past most of the teen years.. when I was about 17/18 I started getting into papercraft. Looking back at what I made it wasn’t all that great, but that’s not why we craft really, is it?

I gave papercraft up for a few years instead I took up cake decorating, then crochet. Now back onto papercraft and I feel like I have rediscovered my passion.

But that doesn’t tell you why I do crafts. If having depression has taught me anything, its that it is important to surround yourself with positivity, love, friends, as well as having a good balance with things you need to do not just the fun stuff.
When I craft on my own, my mind seems to forget about my anxiety, it leaves the outside world and for a short while I can just be creative. When I craft with friends I feel wonderful. People that I love, getting together and all creating something beautiful. The smiles, laughter, the feeling of accomplishment. I adore this!

These ladies are so supportive of my little crafty business and we always have such a good time making pretty things. Sometimes back to front, upside down or completely different to the project, but creativity flows as much as the tea and giggles! Thank you so much to all of you x

My Mum. Mum lives 100 miles away and we don’t see each other as often as we would like. But we have more craft days now than we did when I lived closer to home! We plan some time, get our phones on speaker and start crafting! Sending photos along the way and natter, and drink tea of course!). Crafting has definitely brought us closer. 

When the stamp set Young at Heart came out this year, I saw a stamp and to me, it's me and Mum. (Even though it looks nothing like us!) What do you think?

This picture lives on the whiteboard in my little craft space and always makes me smile. I love my Mum and she has helped me more than she probably realises! Thanks Mum!! X 

Whilst I was trying to find a couple of pictures to put on this blog, I had a good look through the hundreds of photos I have and found myself grinning, chuckling, remembering all the times I had to dig the camera out and keep that moment.  

I don't think that's even close to cover all the reasons why I craft, but I know that I truly love what I do. 

As Stampin' Up! tells us; 

Love what we do, Share what we love and help others to enjoy creativity and worthwhile accomplishments.  

In this, we make a difference 

X

Christmas is coming...

Where has September gone?! This month is flying by so quickly it's crazy!

I've been so busy planning workshops and creating pretty things that I forgot to write my blog for a couple of weeks! I know, I know, I have told myself off, believe me! I will try my hardest to keep to my regular weekly slot!!

So, what has kept me so busy I hear you ask?!

Well, I am excited to say that I have booked the local town hall so that I can grow my workshops, I can fit in 12 of you lovelies now, think of all the fun we will have!

The next workshop is on 5th October and will be making Christmas cards and a tag. With this in mind I have been having a play with some of the beautiful and fun Christmas goodies that are on offer this year!

First, it had to be #Elfie, so much fun!

Here I used the present stamp multiple times to create the background and coloured using Cherry Cobbler and Shaded Spruce dark blends. 

Add a pretty ribbon and my favourite die cut (stitched nested dies from the main catalogue) and stamped with the lovely new Golden Glitz ink in the Christmas catalogue.  I used the Merry Christmas stamp from the Holly Jolly Christmas set and added a couple of spots of Vegas Gold all purpose ink. 

Now for the elves! They are such cuties aren't they?! 

Now I don't know if you know this about me, but I love football.  My team? Peterborough United! So naturally,  the first colour I wanted my elves to be was blue! 

I have started making elves in other teams colours too so that any sports fan can have something a little different this year! 

I used Night of Navy light blend and Night of Navy cardstock to back onto some twine (not SU) and again the Golden Glitz made an appearance! The stars are the finishing touch which you can also find in this years catalogue! 

This photo doesn't do this card justice! It has more shimmer than it shows but I just couldn't seem to get it any better! 

Using Champagne Mist all purpose ink, I splattered it over Night of Navy cardstock to give a starry effect.  

I cut a circle using a die and painted that with the Champagne Mist too. 

The silhouette of Santa and his reindeer from the Jolly Season dies cut from black cardstock. I also used the black dimensionals to attach that.

Believe was stamped with versamark and heat embossed using Shimmer White embossing powder. 

Finished off with a few gems. 

Finally, pillow boxes, pretty Real Red (and very very soft) curly ribbon. The label is cut using the tree punch, and of course the stamps are from #Elfie! 

So for now that is it, why not come along to the workshop on 5th October and see what we will be making?! For more info just pop me an email dawn@craftingonthegreen.co.uk

And as always, links are on the right to buy any of these products from my online shop... do be sure to check out the Clearance Rack too as it has been updated recently! 

Until next week...

Dawn x 

So much sunshine!

Hello!
Hasn't it been gorgeous of late, such a lot of sunshine! Although I am pleased to see it's going to be a little cooler for the rest of the week!

I've been a bit quiet on the blog for the past couple of weeks, and for that I can only apologise,  normality is resuming now!

I attended the wedding of one of my besties a couple of weekends ago, it was so beautiful and the bride was stunning (as always!).
This bank holiday weekend I took the trip to Reading festival and had an amazing time... now that I have caught up on sleep and rehydrated I am ready to get my craft on... and it helps that I took the week off from my day job! So much time to craft!

I have been working on my upcoming workshops. The Mini Album is first up this weekend,  I can't wait to show the group how to make such a gorgeous little book!

Up next will be my Autumn group where we will be making 2 cards and 1 tag using the Rooted in Nature set. I have been really enjoying myself coming up with designs for the workshop,  but I keep finding myself creating Christmas cards! Do you find that happens to you too?!

Here are a couple of the Christmas cards I made...

And then a couple of non Christmas...

This set really does make Simple Stamping look so pretty! I love that the set is so huge, full of leaves and trees, and the die set that matches the stamps can also embossed detail onto your die cuts...it's so worth it!

If you'd like to see more of this set then click the link on the right and it will show you what you get in each of the stamp and die sets.

I've also been having a little play with the Back on your Feet stamp set, I can see this one will be a lot of fun! (Link also on the side)

Here's a couple of simple stamping cards using watercolors to make them pretty and backed onto Night of Navy.  

Keep an eye out on Sunday as I get back to normal,  for my next blog post... I expect it will be full of pretty things after my few days of crafting!

Thanks for reading,

Dawn x

Getting Messy - Part 2

Happy August!

I hope you have all had a great weekend. Mine has been chaotic but fun weekend. 

On Saturday I held Messy Day part 2. This involved the little group of ladies who came to part 1, using all the wonderful backgrounds and bits and turning them into beautiful cards. It was a fantastic day and I really enjoyed seeing everyone's mind working hard to come up with something special... and come up with something special they did! 

Here's a few of the cards (some of them are not quite finished but still need showcasing!) 

These two I made just simply punching the butterflies out of one of my backgrounds and cutting the aperture using the Stitched Nested dies. 

An absolutely gorgeous effort by one of the ladies, using the Silhouette dies to cut from her background.  

One of the unfinished cards here, but by simply backing the laser cut card with one of the backgrounds... stunning don't you think?! 

The Stitched Nested dies featured a lot in our group (it's not hard to see why!). Thd background here was made using the shaving foam technique and topped with a stamp from the Magnolia Blooms set. 

Dinosaurs!!! What's not to love?! The crazy background worked perfectly with these Dinos! 

Love this cow card! Two of this ladies backgrounds featured here... the front one using elastic bands. 

Simple stamping at its finest. Just beautiful.  

Finally another of mine, a shaving foam background and of course I had to get a bird in somewhere! 

As you can see, the creations were amazing! I'm so chuffed with the ladies, such beautiful cards. 

If you would like any info on any of the techniques or sets used then please let me know! 

Have a great week.

Dawn x